Delusion is Darkness
by DI-WeepingTimeMoose
Summary: The Doctor is shocked- and a bit horrified- to find another Timelord roaming modern-day Earth. The Messenger; delusional as they come and definitely not looking to make friends. But the Doctor has to try, because there's a little bit of good in everyone. Isn't there?
1. Chapter 1

The TARDIS landed with a jolt on the street corner, sending the Doctor sprawled on the ground.

"Ow." He grumbled, standing and brushing himself off.

He felt, odd. A familiar feeling, sort of like a tug. How could he forget that feeling even briefly?

"There's another Timelord..." He breathed, turning to the door and quickly going out into the abandoned street.

There was almost no one out, only one man, but he looked scared; as though he expected to be attacked out of nowhere.

The Doctor walked over to him and looked into his eyes.

"Uhm.. Hello? Did you need something?" The man raised his eyebrows and glanced over his shoulder.

"No, nothing... Why are you so scared?" The Doctor asked.

"If you don't already know, god help you." The man hurried off down the street, leaving the Doctor blinking in confusion. What did he mean by that? He continued down the street, looking for someone; anyone.

The sound of sirens started approaching and soon a dozen or so cops cars rolled down the street, surrounding a large grey building further up the road.

"We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up or we're coming in to you." One of the officers spoke through a mega-phone.

The Doctor watched with curiosity and got closer, moving across the street from the building to watch. He saw movement on the roof and looked up to see a girl -looking to be at least 18- standing up on the roof looking down on the police officers with a slightly annoyed look.

Her bone straight auburn hair went half-way down her back and her bangs were like fluff, stopping just above her eyes. She met the Doctors gaze and grinned with strangely sharp teeth. His hearts nearly stopped.

He recognized her, but her eyes finalized who she was. They were a bright blue, but the blue was surrounded with a ring of glowing, bright red and her pupils were like a cats.

"Come down now, this is your last warning." The police took aim at her with their guns. Her grin only grew and she jerked her head to the side, as though telling the Doctor to follow her towards the TARDIS.

As the first shot rang off she ran, leaping over the alley between the buildings without hesitation and going from roof to roof, every shot given off by the police missing. The Doctor raced after her, down the sidewalk towards the TARDIS but barely glancing away from her.

They met the TARDIS at the same time, the Doctor swiftly unlocking the door and they burst through, slamming it shut behind them. The Doctor stared at her in disbelief.

"How are you... How are you here?"

"Oh, I see you already know who I am then. I suppose you wouldn't mind telling me who you are." She replied, crossing her arms. The red was slowly fading from her eyes and she had a smudge of blood on the side of her mouth.

"I'm the Doctor." He said, wincing as her eyes lit up.

'The madman! So _you're_ the one who stopped the Time War." She grinned.

"Yes, _Messenger_," He nearly spat her name out. "I am. But how are you even here! You were supposed to be with your sister! You couldn't go a mile away from her, nevertheless galaxies!"

The Messengers smile faltered and she looked past him, clenching her jaw.

"She finally paid for abandoning me." She snarled, taking a small microchip out of her pocket and holding it out to him on the palm of her hand.

The Doctor took the microchip and turned it over in his fingers before his gaze turned back to her with a look of horror and disbelief.

"Oh you're still delusional, aren't you?" The Messenger looked disappointed, meeting his eyes again.

"You killed your own-"

"She deserved it!" She snapped, baring her teeth.

The Doctor looked taken aback and shook his head.

"What about that, thing in your head?"

"He isn't a thing! He's still with me." She muttered something under her breath and her gaze was cast down on the floor for a second before returning to bitterness, returning the Doctors gaze again and grinning.

"Why were the police after you..?" The Doctor asked cautiously.

"You sure do ask a lot of questions don't you."

"Just curious."

"Well they were over-reacting. You torture and eat a few people, burn down a few apartment building and everyone goes nuts!" She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, looking genuinely annoyed. Again the Doctor stared at her.

"You _ate_ people!?" He exclaimed.

"Well, yeah. Obviously. What else would I eat?"

He was staring again, looking absolutely horrified.

"Well, now that that's over with, where are we off to, Doctor!"


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS rumbled and groaned, although not as much as usual. The Messenger was a little rusty with TARDIS-flying, but she picked it back up quickly. The Doctor was even sort of grateful to have her help him fly it.

"I still don't understand why you won't help me repair my own TARDIS." The Messenger complained, pulling down hard on a lever.

"You know exactly why! I'm not just gonna let you go around blowin' up planets, am I?" The Doctor replied, quickly holding down a few buttons and reaching for a lever.

"That's dumb. Blowing up planets is fun." She complained, looking at him with a pout. "Can I please just blow up _one planet?_ _Pleeeeease!_"

"No. Those would be innocent lives." The Doctor said sternly.

The Messenger huffed and helped him with the buttons.

"Fine. But at least tell me where we're going."

"To be honest, I have no idea." He flashed her a wide grin.

"You just let this thing fly about and just hope you don't land in a sun."

"Yeah. Pretty much."

The Messenger smirked a little.

"Alrighty then! Off to wherever it is we're going!" She laughed, flicking a nearby switch. The TARDIS landed with a jolt.

"Alons-y!" The Doctor grinned, going to the door and opening it.

He peered about, taking out his Sonic Screwdriver and waving it about for a moment before checking the readings. The Messenger peered out from under his arm.

"Oo a spaceship!" She squeaked in excitement, pushing her way through and looking around. The room they were in was large and circular, the lighting flickering and dust settling on the ground.

The Doctor noted the excited look in the Messengers eyes, a brightness that hadn't been there before. _There's hope for her yet. _He thought with a small, satisfied smile.

"Come on Docky, let's take a look around, eh?" The Messenger grinned at him. The Doctor followed her out of the room and down a corridor.

"Place seems old. Wonder if I could find a way to fix the lighting." The Messenger thought out loud, looking around the place in wonder.

She walked faster than the Doctor, disappearing around the corner.

"Doc- Oh, wait, never mind. It's dead. But come look at this!" She called and the Doctor hurried forward.

He stared at the empty Dalek shell that faced them, unmoving but looking as though it were about to fire any second.

"So this is a Dalek ship.. How'd it survive the Time War? And how'd get all the way out here." He scanned the shell.

"Maybe it was a rogue ship. Even in the Daleks system that's possible. These could've been insane Daleks, or a ship of Daleks gone insane!" The Messenger chirped.

"Perhaps." The Doctor smirked slightly. "Come on, maybe we can find out what happened here." He didn't mind sticking around the ship as long as the Daleks weren't alive and working, and he certainly couldn't just leave the ship without destroying it. Who knows what would happen if Dalek technology got into the wrong hands. Like the Cybermen. He shivered at the thought.

They continued down the hall until they found a door leading to what seemed to be a power room.

"We need to fix the power, get to the control room and initiate self-destruct." The Doctor said, examining the wires.

"No problem."

"Be careful, some Daleks may still be alive and in containment. We want the power on but not containment opening."

"Right. No problem Docky." The Messenger began to tear at the wires, putting them in place and sometimes stripping them. She winced and her fingers glowed with what looked to be regeneration energy.

"What on Earth...?" The Doctor peered at her fingertips and she froze, looking at him with a small glare.

"What."

"Is that regeneration energy?"

"Yes, it is. Mine was screwed with so I can constantly heal myself. Useful tool in a war."

"They genetically modified you... That must've been painful!" He was still looking at her fingertips, the glowing slowly fading.

"Maybe it was." She growled, messing with the wires a bit more. The lights stopped flicking and there was the sound of something powering up. "There."

They left the power room and looked up and down the hall.

"This way I should think." The Messenger said, going right a few paces.

"In-tru-ders de-tected. Ex-ter-min-ate the in-truu-ders." A Daleks yell rang out and the Messenger stopped dead as the shadow of a Dalek stretched across the corridor before her.

"On second thought," She began, turning on her heel. "This way's good to."

"Run!" They took off down the corridor, sliding around the corner. They past another hallway and out of the corner of their eyes they saw the shape of multiple Daleks.

"The Doc-tor and the Mes-sen-ger de-tected. Ex-ter-min-ate!" The Dalek yelled, shots firing over their heads. The Doctors hearts beat faster and faster as they ran and he pushed the Messenger into a side room. Quickly, he sonic'd the door and leaned against the wall.

"I thought I said not to wake them up.." He panted.

"Sorry." The Messenger giggled, looking around the room. The Doctor glanced at her, surprised by the light of enjoyment in her eyes. Hadn't she realized what had just happened?

"So! How do we get out of this one?" She asked, flinching slightly at the sound of shots against the door. She stared up at the ceiling.

"Doctor come on over here." Grabbing him by the shoulders, she pulled him under where she had been staring and positioned him so his hands were cupped, like a step.

"What are you...?" The Doctor began, trailing off as she stepped up onto his hand and stood with amazing balance. There was a grate on the ceiling that he hadn't noticed before and she quickly got it open, pulling herself through; although it looked as though she had barely fit.

The Doctor held up his hand for her to grab but she just looked down at him.

"Come on, pull me up!"

"You won't fit Doctor. I'll distract the Daleks, you stay here while they're gone."

He hesitated a moment before dropping his arm with a sigh.

"Alright. Then we set up the self-destruct and we get out of here." He said. She nodded and disappeared down what seemed to be a ventilation system. The Daleks were shouting orders to each other and continued trying to get in.


	3. Chapter 3

The Messenger slipped through the vents, peering through the grates every once in a while to check if there were Daleks. They didn't know where she was, thankfully. She both hated and admired Daleks; they were right in their hatred of everything but were simply in a delusion of their own. They weren't out of the delusion, just in a different one. Or at least she thought so.

She had no intention of going back for the Doctor. Why should she when she could have the TARDIS to herself and have a little, fun?

'Don't forget to set the self-destruct before taking off.' A very british voice spoke in her head.

'Right. Nearly forgot.' She replied with her own Canadian accent. It was strange, she thought, that almost everyone she knew had a british accent while she didn't. Accents were strange to her.

'It's right up ahead. Please try not to get yourself trapped in there. I'd hate to half to punish you for messing up.' En said spitefully. She nodded her understanding and stopped as she neared the last grate, peeking through at the Daleks below. There were three.

'Remember your fighting. Some things don't change.' En reminded her.

'I know that, brother dear. Just give me a moment, I need to map this out.' She spat back in her head.

After a moment she slowly opened up the grate, waiting until one of the Daleks rolled under and jumping down onto it. She broke it's eye stalk and tore off the gun, ducking behind as the other two Daleks shot at her. With a sharp-toothed grin she picked up the broken Dalek and threw it into one of the others, flipping onto her hand as a shot just barely missed her back. She landed in front of the last Dalek and easily disabled it's weapons.

"Lovely to see you all again. I'm afraid I'll have to cut this visit short." She drawled, patting the Daleks eye stalk and walking to the console.

"What. Are. You. Doing? Don't. Touch, that!" The Dalek said, it's voice like a mechanical groan.

"Calm down garbage can. It won't hurt a bit. Probably." The Messenger giggled, running her hands along the console and tapping her fingers a little.

"Self-destruct… Self-destruct… Hm… Oh! There we are. Adios!" She slammed her hand down on a larger button enthusiastically, waving at the Daleks before taking off back up the vent. She moved quicker now and with ease, the sirens blaring even louder as a computerized voice rang out; 'Self-destruct sequence initiated. Self-destruct in one minutes.'

'The Doctor's going to _love_ this trick, eh?' She laughed aloud.

'Unfortunately he won't have much time to enjoy it.' En snickered back. The Messenger stopped at the end of a long passage, with two other vents breaking away on either side, and opened up the grate below. She jumped down, looking down the hall and smiling at the TARDIS which sat at the end.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" A Dalek screamed behind her. With a glance over her shoulder at the Dalek she raced towards the TARDIS, weaving around the shots fired at her and feeling their heat as the barely missed her skin.

"Fifteen seconds." The robotic voice rang out, echoing with the sound of the sirens.

The Messenger skidded to a stop in front of the TARDIS, quickly opening the door and slamming it shut behind her. Locking it, she ran to the console and ran around flipping switches and pressing buttons. The TARDIS shook as the explosion initiated outside, but disappeared just before the blast took hold.

"Hah! Look at us!" She laughed with satisfaction, throwing her fists in the air. "Winning!"

The TARDIS jolted and shook, throwing her to the ground.

"What the fuck!" She cursed, pulling herself up and trying to stabilize the TARDIS. It landed with a crash and a jerk, nearly knocking her off her feet again.

"What the hell just happened..." The Messenger wandered over to the door, opening it a little and peeking out. Her view was blocked by someone's chest and she looked up into the Doctors furious eyes.

"Oh, heh, look. You survived. Good. I-I was... Uhm... worried!" She said sheepishly, cowering down a little and backing away as he whipped the door open the rest of the way.

"You were going to leave me there!" The Doctor shouted, pointing at her accusingly. The Messenger held up her hands and continued to back away as he advanced.

"Uhm... I wouldn't have had enough time to get you and the Daleks.. were... about to attack! They had their sights set on a nearby planet and, well I had to stop them ASAP. Surely you can understand." She lied, giving a fake toothy smile and wincing at his unimpressed glare.

"What were you planning on doing with the TARDIS anyway?"

"Well..." She tilted her head back and forth, as though deciding whether to tell him and put her hands in her pockets.

'Don't tell him anything. It'll just get you in trouble.' En warned.

'Aw... But it'd be fun to see his face. Come on...'

En sighed in annoyance. 'Fine.'

"You see... I was planning to go commit some mass genocide, you know? Go to Triana Five, blow up its sun. The good stuff." The Messenger told the Doctor calmly, watching his eyes stretch wide in horror and chuckling a bit.

"Is that a problem Docky?" She said teasingly.

"Triana Five!? Why would you want to blow up Triana Five!?" The Doctor exclaimed.

"Eh, I dunno. Fun." She shrugged as though it wasn't a big deal, because to her it really wasn't.

The Doctor fixed her with a piercing glare.

"Come with me." He growled, leading her down the hall a little ways and opening one of the doors to an empty white room with a single bed pushed to the side wall.

The Doctor moved out of the way to let her in and she walked in. The Messenger tried to move out of the way as a pair of shackles came from the wall, clipping around her wrists and ankles and attaching to the wall by a glowing blue energy rope.

"Oh you're kidding. Come _on_ Doctor. Let's think logically here." She turned to him, meeting his eyes with a small frown.

"This is your room." He said, walking to her and grabbing one of her wrists. He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned one of the cuffs. The energy rope dispersed and he walked over to the wall, pressing on a panel and taking out another cuff. He attached it to his own wrist and turned to her.

"Now you can't do anything bad." He said.

"Oh please. You really think a pair of shackles is going to- AGH!" She cried out, falling to her knees as a shock of pain raced up her arms and nearly paralyzed her. The Doctor took his hand away from his cuff with a small, regretting frown.

"I can do that anytime." He said grimly.

"Oh _wonderful._ That's cruel." She growled back.

"Not cruel. Necessary. Now come on. I'm sure there's something to do on Earth." The Doctor replied, leading her back out of the room with her glaring at him furiously, but following.


	4. Chapter 4

The two Timelords spent a very long time travelling together, with the Messenger only occasionally misbehaving; if only to steal something or play a trick on some unsuspecting creature.

They got a lot done, and found that although their interests varied widely from one another, they could work well together in a crisis.

When they weren't exploring distant planets and stars- the Messengers eyes brimming with excitement though she'd never admit she was excited- the Doctor tried to dig deeper into her mind, to see if he couldn't pull out some good. Some part of her that wouldn't kill a bug without regret; though that part of her seemed non-existent.

Even though he was persistent in most situations, the Doctor had begun to lose hope for her.

Until they finally went to sleep.

They had just come back from saving a crashing ship, hi-jacked by bug-like mutants; they were tired, but neither seemed to want to sleep.

"Sleeping is dumb and a waste of time." The Messenger said, yawning and hitting herself in the head to try and wake up.

"Even Timelords have to sleep eventually." The Doctor said with a frown. He wondered why she seemed to dislike it so much. They had all the time in the Universe.

"Yeah, so? It's dumb. I'm not doing it." She said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

'You'll die if you don't sleep. It's necessary for you to function; and you want to function, _right_?' En snarled at her and she flinched as a flash of pain struck through her head.

"On second thought..." She began, stretching to try and cover up the flinch. "Maybe it would be a good idea. Goodnight!" Without giving the Doctor another glance, the Messenger ran off down the hall to her room.

'But I hate sleeping...' She complained to En, frowning as she halted outside her room.

'Oh well. I'll do my best to help. Just _try_ and sleep.' He replied.

With a resigned sigh, she walked into the room.

Since she had first come on, she had been granted a large set of charcoal with which she drew on the walls.

The drawings had no particular order or form. A jumble of images and words. It was all hard to make sense of, except the places where it said 'Delusion' in bright red.

She walked over to her bed and laid down, her hands behind her head as she looked up at the detailed portrait of Gallifreys second city; Arcadia, and a small frown found its way across her face.

'Bit depressing, don't you think? That we'll never terrorize the dear city again?' She said in her head.

'Yeah, a damn shame. Go to sleep.' En replied.

'Fine.' With a huff, she turned onto her side and closed her eyes.

In a few moments, she had fallen asleep.

The Doctor woke with a start, sitting up and blinking the sleep from his eyes and fixing his pajama pants. He wasn't sure what had woke him up, so he stood and decided to go investigate.

As he walked down the halls, he listened to the groan and whir of the TARDIS and his footsteps echoing eerily. What could've possibly woken him?

Soon he slowed his pace to a stop, listening for a moment.

"I suppose it was nothing." He muttered, turning to walk back to his room.

A scream and a cry of pain split the air and the Doctor whipped back around.

"Messenger." He breathed, taking off down the hall as fast as he could, adrenaline pushing him on.

The screaming faded, but as he got closer to her room he could hear sobbing.

"Messenger!?" He called out, skidding to a stop outside her door, his hearts hammering with worry.

The Doctor quickly looked over the panel, quickly pressing buttons until the door slid open.

Confusion overcame his worry as he looked in upon the sight, the Messenger sitting on the floor beside her bed, her hands covering her face as she seemed to sob. The covers on the bed were a mess, as though she had been thrashing about.

"M-Mess...?" He took a small step into the room. At the sound of his voice she looked up, her eyes round with panic, and she scrambled around to the other side of the bed before sliding under it.

Cautiously the Doctor ventured forward.

"It's okay.." He soothed, kneeling down beside the bed and looking under.

The Messenger was peering back, her eyes glowing faintly in the dark. A whimper escaped from her lips and she slid back, further under the bed.

The Doctor held out his hand.

"Come on, you can come out, it's okay I won't hurt you..." He said quietly, looking at her. She hit his hand away and turned to face the wall.

He sighed, sitting up and moving away a little to give her room when she decided to come out.

"What, you have nightmares?" He asked, but he didn't expect an answer.

"I have them to, sometimes. What are yours about? Mine are usually about Gallifrey... Didn't have them tonight though, so that was good." He continued, looking up at the ceiling and running a hand through his hair.

He almost fell over as a weight pushed into him, arms wrapped around him just under his arms and a crying face hidden by his shirt.

"I'm s-sorry... S-so sorry... F-for everything..." The Messenger sobbed, mumbling more sorry's.

The Doctor looked down at her in shock, frozen in place for a moment before wrapping his arms around her comfortingly.

"Hey.. it's fine... it's all fine I forgive you..." He comforted, holding her tightly and rocking her gently back and forth.

"N-no.. no it's not fine... i-i've done such t-terrible things..."

He frowned. It isn't like he could argue that fact; she had done many terrible things. He found that he didn't understand where this was even coming from. She was always so passive about what she had done, never seemed to care about it. What had changed?

Suddenly she pushed him away, sitting herself up and wiping her face.

"Sorry... sorry..." She mumbled more apologies, looking away.

"Where's this coming from..?" He winced even as he said it, worrying he had sounded offensive or rude, but she looked at him with understanding. She understood that it wouldn't make sense to him.

"Heh... If I told you that it'd be no fun, now would it?" She gave a wolfish grin and rubbed the back of her head, her cheeks still wet.

"Hey! That isn't fair. You have to at least tell me what happened." The Doctor gave her a pouting look.

"Fine." She said with a nod, her grin turning into a smug smile. She leaned forward until her lips brushed his ear, and he hated to admit that his face had gotten a bit redder.

"Sometimes, you can't lock away all that you wish to hide from." She whispered, pulling away. Her smile had faded but now she gave his dumb-founded look a small smirk.

He pursed his lips in annoyance.

"That doesn't tell me anything." He said.

"On the contrary, it tells you everything you need to know." She said, frowning a little.

The Doctor frowned back and stood, looking down at her.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm done with sleep." He said. "How about we go someplace interesting, hm? How about... Triana 5?" He smirked, holding out his hand.

She chuckled, grabbing it and pulling herself up.

"That's no fun. You won't let me do anything good there." She said, pouting a bit but smiling.

The Doctor noticed how close their faces were.

"Hah. Very funny. Come on." He said, turning and dragging her from the room, their hands still clasped together.

Not that he noticed.


End file.
